The wifes Nissan Prarrie JoyAWDhas a bloody annoying steering wheel wobble at town speeds and now at open road at times. It is there all the time but sometimes hardly noticeable and other times its horrid. It has 195,65,14 on the rear and 185, 70, 14 front.It has had 3 wheel alignments and balances this year trying to sort it and now just last week the tyre outfit took all wheels off and checked them over for faults etc and done another balance etc. All they could say is that because its AWD the larger rears are causing the wobble in the wheel. Now I have no problem getting matching set but would be annoyed if it wasnt the issue at all. The tyres on it are in good nick.And having matching sizes makes sence to me as well. But why hasnt someone said in the last round on alignmentsand at warrent time as it was wobblin then. Someone else on here mentioned there Prarrie did the same thing as well with no known cause.
tonyrockyhorror,
Jun 9, 7:46pm
No, not a steering wobble. But a binding effect on tight turns, certainly.
You need to more tightly specify under what conditions the wobble occurs and when it is worse or better.
curlcrown,
Jun 9, 7:51pm
It could be an out of round rim but the tyre shop should have picked that up. Its easy to check. Just jack up the car and spin each wheel by hand and you can easily see if one or more are out of round.
gunhand,
Jun 9, 7:51pm
If it was that easy. Just driving normal up to 50kph it will do at say 45kph then go away at 50kph, its random kinda thing. I do notice if you accelerate abit harder its not quite as bad. Does it on any surface as well. There no notchyness in the steering either.It surprised the tyre dude how bad it was. Oh and if you let go the wheel its quite scary lookin how much it wobbles.
gunhand,
Jun 9, 7:54pm
I woulda thought balanceing them would have showed this up!
tonyrockyhorror,
Jun 9, 8:03pm
Only if the person balancing them bothered to actually observe the rim and tyre as it was spinning. Chances are he was more interested in getting back to his pipe.
slarty45,
Jun 9, 8:13pm
A Suzuki Jimny I had, would have a steering shimmy at about 70 kph, low k's original tyres, but only on certain road surfaces. After I sold it found out the fix, re shim the kingpins.
skin1235,
Jun 9, 8:14pm
and even that doesn't always show the problem, check the run out on the disks, hubs, stubs check also for build up around the studs, are the centres even capable of fitting the registers - you've got two different sets of rims - are either for that model would have thought the center diff would take care of unequal front rear issues
supernova2,
Jun 9, 8:25pm
Delaminating tyre!According to my chart the difference in diameter of the two tyre sizes is 6mm.THe 195/65 being the smaller.I guess if the 195s were worn out and the 185s were new you could be 12mm different.You could just about play with the pressure to get the rolling radius the same and try it.Have you tried swapping front to back just to see what happens!Are the rims all the same - saw that last week at a tyre shop 4 rims all different.Shop just fitted the 2nd hand tyres, refitted the rims and took the money.
mrfxit,
Jun 9, 8:31pm
Simple test would be to borrow a FULL SET from another car & try that. If the wobbles goes away, then clearly the problem is with your original set.
If the wobbles are still there, then AGAIN it's clear that the problem is with your cars suspension
gunhand,
Jun 9, 8:33pm
The rims should be the same size. I had the 185 70 14s put on the front because they needed replaced.And according to wife it was ok before that.I asked my mechanic if the sizes were compatable and he seemed to think so. I haventswapped back to front yet.
gunhand,
Jun 9, 8:34pm
Yea thought of that, dont know anyone with a primera lol, what other models are nissan compatable!
mrfxit,
Jun 9, 8:36pm
Agreed PLUS with the modern balancers that run slow speeds, wobbles that show up ONLY at higher speeds can go un-noticed even by the best balancer machines
Loose/ball of rubber between the tyre belt layers Broken belt Twisted belt Sidewall belt bent/ busted Embedded nail in the tread
Most of the above "should" show up visibly .but not always
mrfxit,
Jun 9, 8:40pm
ANY of the models of about 5 years either side of that model that also run the same size rims. Tyre size is UNIMPORTANT for the test as long as they run good on the doner & fit under the guards on the test car. Primara's Bluebirds Attessa's etc etc
A lot of the 4cylinder models of other brands with the same stud pattern will also fit depending on the center hole design
mrfxit,
Jun 9, 8:42pm
In fact, a very real possibility of binding the diff's regardless of turning or straight AWD = Full time 4WD = same HEIGHT tyres ALL ROUND
ceebee2,
Jun 9, 8:57pm
I put my money on wheel balance.take it to another reputable tyre shop for another balance.
supernova2,
Jun 9, 9:00pm
6mm is the difference between a new tyre and an old one.I agree shoould always be the same all round but to be exact you would have to replace al four tyres when one wears out.Dont think that would happen very often.I wouldn't have thought a few mm would cause the problems here.If the problem only started with the "new" 185/70/14 see if the tyre guys will pull them off and put a couple of old one back on and seee if problem goes away.Sounds to me like a dud tyre or bad fitting.
supernova2,
Jun 9, 9:14pm
Looks like the correct tyre size is 195/65 14, would it not have been better to stick with that size if thats what it should have rather than fit an almost right!Not that the size difference should cause what you have happening unless it is simply a case of the diffs figjhting each other as suggested above.Another thought not directional or assymetric (sp) tyres fitted the wrong way round on the rims!Had that problem once with a Michelin fitted inside out but it was just super noisey untill turned right way out.
gunhand,
Jun 9, 9:58pm
Its been to 2 different tyre shops and my mechanic, all have done balances. And Im thinking havingthe right sizes may help but no one really said there would be an issue doing this thats all. Oh and I Got the tyres off a mates car that was writtin off (no nothing to with or near the wheels) for free. and his steering wheel never wobbled about.I even asked before putting them on as well.
supernova2,
Jun 9, 10:13pm
I don't think its balance.Balnce really only becomes an issue at higher speeds and in this case its there at low speed.The wheels have been done 3 times now, surely it wasn't done wrong 3 times.As we now find the "new" tyres are 2nd hand I'd almost bet my left one that one of those tyres is a dud and its delaminated and causing shuffle as it goes round and round and that shows up more at low speed.At higher speeds momentum tends to mask the shuffle which may be why you only feel it from time to time at higher speeds.If you swop front to back the wobble will probably move to the rear of the car like speed wobbles.As it is now you have the effective track between the front wheels changing with rotation hence one wheel is fighting the other and causing the twitch depending on which wheel wins.On the back the car will wobble rather than the steering wheel unless of course you have a 4 wheel steer model.
kazbanz,
Jun 9, 10:44pm
Have you tried putting fronts on rear and rears on the front! What I don't think anyone has hit on is that maybee its the missmatched size thats causing the issue
utwo,
Jun 9, 11:15pm
I had that problem once on a 2WD car. It was caused by a faulty tyre (nothing visible though). If you swap the front and rear wheels and the problem goes away, replace the tyres.
gunhand,
Jun 9, 11:24pm
Yep thats on the list to see what happens. But in saying that they said the rear was fighting the front so thats why its wobblin the steering wheel so would it still do it as the sizes are different but reversed. Im not against putting new tyres on it but if it wasnt the issue its a waste of money since tyres on it look fine. Ive thrown money at problems before at mechanics recomendations only to find out that problem was totally unrelated to the actuall problem. Just trying to see if its tyres or something else.
supernova2,
Jun 9, 11:30pm
As suggested before find a set of wheels from something and swap em over.I'm sure its one of the new tyres causing the problem as the prob wasn't there before.
gunhand,
Jun 9, 11:34pm
You seem to be thinking the same as tyre shop on this. But it was only last week after they had done a full alignment balance etc they had another look and took all tyres off to inspect them that they came up with the differing sizes being the issue. So they done another wheel alignment as well. Could be as simple as tyres so will be doing that shorlty I feel. Tyres are cheap enough.
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